Dancing Pigs
by Soursugar88
Summary: Vanellope and Ralph find Turbo in Diet Cola Mountain, regenerated. To their surprise, he has a completely different story of what happened when he took over. Now, Turbo has to prove his story's true, while simultaneously recounting the experience to Vanellope.
1. Findings and Viruses

_A/N: I am spitting out new ideas like a machine gun. Not that I'm complaining, just one of the advantages of being new. So, here in this story, there are segments that switch from past to present (and back),and they're signified by TWO line breaks instead of one. So, without further ado, Dancing Pigs._

* * *

Chapter one: Findings and viruses

"Come on, Stinkbrain, I wanna see the wreckage!"

Vanellope was urging Ralph to Diet Cola Mountain, wanting to check out the damage done to it when Ralph erupted it just a few days ago. Ralph finally picked up his pace and they reached the mountain. Vanellope stepped through the secret entrance, with Ralph in tow.

"Sweet mother of monkey milk," Vanellope exclaimed when she saw what happened to her old home. Jagged shards of hard candy was the new floor, and everything smelled burnt.

"C'mon kid, let's get out of here," Ralph said, while steering Vanellope out of the mountain, when she heard someone moaning.

"Did you hear that?" Vanellope hissed while stopping in her tracks.

"Hear what?"

Whoever that was moaning stopped, but Vanellope could make out pained breaths.

"Over there," she pointed to a ditch made by the shards. She glitched there, materializing on the shard above the ditch.

"Ahh!" She exclaimed in surprise.

"What? What is it?!"

Vanellope whipped her head up towards Ralph. "It's Turbo!"

* * *

Turbo himself awoke doubled over somewhere dark. The last thing he remembered was hearing the glitch in the mountain exclaim that she found him, and Ralph coming over and almost squeezing the life out of him, to the point where he blacked out. He tried to adjust to the dark, but there was nothing to adjust on. He tried to get up and walk around, but when he tried, he was pulled back. Turbo glanced at his hand, and saw it was chained. He realized he was in the fungeon, in the cell that was designed for Vanellope. He also saw that the places that were burnt were in a bandage, so he probably wasn't going to die soon. He couldn't think anymore, because the door opened, and Vanellope stepped in. She looked serious about something.

"Turbo, you know you did something horrible, right?"

"Right."

"And, you don't deny those crimes deserve execution?"

Turbo swallowed. "No."

"Huh. I thought I'd get more of a fight. Anyways, as a merciful President, I'll give you a chance to live."

Turbo's head shot up at that. "Go on."

"In ten seconds, tell me why you should live."

"Because it wasn't my fault," Turbo declared without missing a beat.

"Not your fault?" Vanellope repeated, perplexed. "What do you mean, not your fault?"

Turbo sighed. It was hard enough living those twenty-five years, and he really didn't want to recount them. But, he had no other choice.

"...I'll tell you. Get comfy, glitch; this is going to take a long time."

Vanellope walked closer to Turbo and sat a foot away from him. "What happened?" She asked him curiously.

Turbo faced her. "This may sound cliché, but it all started a long time ago-"

"How long ago?"

"A long time. Anyways, word in the arcade was that there was a virus loose in Game Central Station, and it was the kind that lies dormant..."

* * *

"...Waiting for a game's program to activate it. And, that's why it's important to be careful in your games," the Surge Protector finished his speech to the arcade. All the characters glanced around nervously, except Turbo, who just scoffed. All the games have firewalls, so there wasn't a problem! Turbo pushed past all the other characters to get to his game's outlet. He was sure that nothing would happen to his game.

* * *

The day came and went without event, as usual. When the arcade closed, Turbo scrambled to the top of the stands and yelled out at the screen.

"You see!" Turbo shouted, "there isn't anything to worry about! There's no virus, and you should stop being so paranoid!"

"What virus?" Turbo heard someone ask behind him, and when he turned around, was staring at the one person he didn't want to know about the virus.

"...Hey Piston," Turbo casually greeted the twin.

* * *

"Who's Piston?" Vanellope asked in the present.

"One of the twins," Turbo replied, "he's a little... Well, you'll see."

"One of the twins?"

"The other's named Throttle. He's concerned. Anyways, where was I? Oh, right. So, I saw Piston behind me, and he was a little freaked out. Okay, more than a little."

"How freaked out was he?" Vanellope asked, smirking.

"Really freaked out. He was going on and on about how the virus was..."

* * *

"...Going to take over this game! Turbo, we're doomed!"

Turbo firmly grabbed Piston's shoulders and pushed him on the stands.

"We are not going to die," Turbo told him sternly, "everyone's getting paranoid about nothing! Got it?"

"But-"

"Got it?"

Piston nodded his assent, and Turbo released his shoulders.

"I'm going to Tapper," Turbo said to no one in particular.

When Turbo got off the train to Game Central Station, he noticed something was wrong. Everybody was walking slowly, and keeping their distance from everybody. Turbo stared at everybody in Game Central Station, resisting the urge to scoff at everybody. Turbo was walking through the Station, and he got this nagging feeling that something was wrong. He shrugged in off and continued to Tapper, but when he got to the outlet, there was a sign posted there.

"No root beer," Turbo read aloud, "virus might be hiding there."

"Arrrgh!" Turbo screamed in frustration. That stupid virus was ruining everything! First, he was getting stopped all the time by the Surge Protector, next, everybody walked slow and kept away from each other 'for fear of the virus', and now, no root beer! He decided to head over to his own game and do a few laps around the track... If he could do that without 'fear of the virus'.

* * *

When he got to his game and neared the house behind the stands, he saw Felix talking to the twins. He was wringing his hat in his hands, and he looked sad about something. The twins looked sad also. Turbo picked up his pace and headed towards the house, forgetting his original plans. When he got there, Felix must've finished saying what he was saying to the twins, as he walked away and brushed past Turbo sadly. Turbo approached the twins, who both looked at him sadly.

"What happened?" Turbo asked them, "What was he saying?"

Piston looked up at Turbo. "I told you," he simply said, and trudged in the house.

"What's he talking about?" Turbo asked Throttle.

"Turbo... Q*bert got unplugged today."

Turbo's face fell. "What?"

"It was infected by the virus. The repairman said he knew the virus's capability, and there was nothing he could do."

Turbo began to get a little worried. What if his game was infected? He didn't want to be homeless. Nevertheless, he regained his composure and retreated into the house, grabbing Throttle's wrist and pulling him along.

* * *

Vanellope was listening with wide eyes, and seemed disappointed when he stopped. She sat there for a few seconds, before snickering.

"You- you didn't notice a whole game missing?"

"I had a lot on my mind!" Turbo protested.

"Alright," she said playfully, "what happened after that?" She questioned him eagerly.

"Well-" Turbo began, but the door to the fungeon opened, and Ralph was standing there.

"Vanellope, you have to get ready for the Random Roster Race, remember?"

Vanellope perked her head up. "Right!" She glitched out of the fungeon and materialized behind Ralph, who shot Turbo a look that said 'don't mess with Vanellope,' and closed the door to the fungeon.

* * *

"Ralph," Vanellope said as they were walking away from the fungeon, "Turbo's telling me that this all wasn't his fault."

"Yeah..." Ralph slowed down a little and stared at the tiny President, expecting her to continue.

"And, I don't believe him... But I want to."

Ralph stopped dead in his tracks. "What? Why?"

"I don't know," Vanellopoe tried to explain, "I have a feeling he's telling the truth."

Ralph eyed her. "Yeah, well, I had a feeling he was telling the truth when he convinced me to destroy your kart."

Vanellope rolled her eyes at him. "Huh. I'll just have to get proof."

"Why is this so important to you?!" Ralph demanded.

"Because! If he isn't telling the truth, then I'll have to execute him. And I can't do that, no matter what he did to me! Besides, the story's interesting."

With that, Vanellope glitched ahead of Ralph to get to her kart-slash-throne quicker, and sped out of the castle in one of the special doors she had. Ralph watched her go, then turned his head towards the fungeon.

"I wonder what he's feeding her to convince her of his innocence," Ralph wondered aloud.

"Whatever it is, I hope Vanellope doesn't get too hooked to forget what he did to her. But, she's smart. And he's older and a con!" Ralph began to panic, and stormed off to the fungeon to have a little 'chat' with Turbo.

* * *

_ A/N: Uhh... First chapter. Gonna be hard juggling two story lines at once. To all the people who wanted a story with actual dancing pigs... I regret nothing. The term 'dancing pigs' is techspeak. Please review. Reviews=faster updates, and Happy Sour._


	2. Look Before You Powerup

_ A/N: The new chapter is here, and it's HUGE. Huh. The double line breaks didn't work in the last chapter. So, from now on, the transitions will be marked by the last line before the transition will be italicized, and the first after will also be italicized. But, enough with that stuff. Chapter two! (Hey, early release) Oh, a couple reviewers asked what 'dancing pigs' was techspeak for, so here goes: It's a term that states that users will pick amazing graphics even if they're warned it's potentially dangerous for their computer. _

* * *

Chapter two: Look before you powerup

Turbo stared at the wall of the fungeon, trying to make sense of all the memories. He tried to remember what came before what. He was disoriented and, although he hated to admit it, petrified most of the time. And, he really didn't want to relive all that time. He heard footsteps coming from the hall outside. Loud footsteps, coming from a large person. The only person Turbo knew was large enough to make those footsteps. Wreck-it-

_**"TURBO!"**_

Ralph burst through the doors of the fungeon, flooding the place with light and stinging Turbo's eyes.

"I don't know what kind of malarkey you're feeding Vanellope, but I want you to stop. That's an order."

Turbo glared at him. "It's not malarkey. I'm telling the truth. I swear on my life."

Ralph smirked. "On your life?"

"Yes!"

Ralph grew solemn. "You have a month to tell the story and find some unquestionable proof that you're telling the truth."

"Or..." Turbo tensed, dreading the worst.

"Or, you'll be executed. I'm sor- no, no I'm not. What you did is unforgivable."

Ralph exited the fungeon, slamming the door behind him. Turbo blinked, his eyes readjusting to the darkness.

* * *

Vanellope glitched through the fungeon door a half hour later and held her hands out extravagantly.

"Hello, my royal chump," she greeted Turbo, "ready to tell me more?" She returned her hands to her side when she saw him staring into space.

"Hey, is everything alright?" She asked him, concerned.

"No. I have one month to recount a complicated story to you, and find proof I'm telling the truth, or I'll be executed. Ralph said so."

Vanellope scowled at that.

"Ralph?! He can't tell me what to do! I'm President! You're in my game! My game! You're in my fungeon, and you're my prisoner! Mine! I decide what to do with you, and I'm not having you executed without hearing you out! And close your jaw!"

The last statement of Vanellope's was because Turbo was staring open-mouthed at the young girl who was defending him, after what he did to her.

"Well, if I only have a month for this, we'd better get started then," Turbo started to tell the story.

"Now, where was I?"

"You just found out that Q*bert was unplugged, and you dragged Throttle in the house."

"Ah, right. We can fast-forward to next week, cause nothing happened in that week."

"Well, what happened that next week?"

"RoadBlasters arrived. Actually, that's not were we start. We start the day before that. I finally got around to an after-hours lap around the track, and I learned a valuable lesson."

"What lesson?"

"You'll see. The virus had an effect on us. _Throttle was concerned, Piston was paranoid, and, I was..."_

* * *

_"...Not scared!_ For the last time Throttle, I'm not scared! This dumb virus has no effect on me! And it shouldn't have an effect on you!"

Throttle was sitting at the table, shaking like he always did when there was a crisis. Turbo laid his hand on Throttle's shoulder, then took it off a second later.

"Throttle, I'm going to do a few laps around the track. You want to..."

"No," Throttle interrupted him, "I'll stay here."

Turbo shrugged and walked outside to his kart. He climbed in and turned on the engine, and immediately felt some relief. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and smiled. He slammed on the accelerator and sped around the track. One lap turned to two, and three, and that turned to ten. He was just about to stop, when he squinted and saw something blue floating above the track...

A powerup box!

Turbo smiled and headed to intercept the box. He saw it was too high for his kart to intercept the box, so he stuck one hand out to intercept it. Once his hand hit the box, he realized something was wrong.

TurboTime didn't have powerups.

On contact, Turbo was yanked from his kart and fell flat on the ground. His hand was fused to the box, which was changing color from blue to red. He could see that the hand that was fused to the box was starting to dispel into pixels, and he felt a strange sensation in him. Suddenly, he exploded into pixels, withering on the ground. Turbo forced himself to open his eyes, and he saw that the box was shrinking, and his blue pixels were starting to turn that same red as the box. He was sure that he was completely dispelled into pixels; and the last things he saw before he blacked out were his pixels completely turning red, and one of the twins running towards him.

* * *

Turbo woke up in the house the TurboTime trio share, in his bed, with one of the twins standing above him. His head was throbbing horribly, worse than all the times he'd gotten hammered at Tapper, and his whole body ached. He faced the twin standing above him, and tried to speak.

"Wh- what happened?" Turbo managed to get out.

"I'm not sure," the twin, which Turbo figured out was Throttle, explained, "I think it might have been the virus."

Turbo sat up with a start. "What?" He exclaimed, then clutched his head, which was aching more after the sudden jerk. Throttle helped Turbo back on his side.

"The virus? The one everybody was getting paranoid about?" Turbo's voice came out as a whisper, and Throttle nodded his head in affirmation.

"And all this time, I was the only one who didn't care? And I got infected?"

Throttle nodded again, and they both heard thundering footsteps coming up the stairs, and Piston burst into Turbo's room, completely hysterical.

"Turbo! Turbo, you okay?! You got infected! But I'mgladyour'eokayIhopeyoudon'tdieandItoldyouwe'red oomedand-"

"Piston, breathe. And, while you're at it, ease up on the death grip, would you?"

_Turbo was being squished against Piston in a death grip hug, which Piston eased up on a little, and since they were pressed up against each other, Turbo could feel him shaking. _

* * *

_"Hey, can I ask you something?" _Vanellope interrupted.

"What?"

"Those twins, Throttle and Piston, how come one's level-headed, and the other tends to freak out more?"

Turbo thought about that for a minute, then settled on an answer.

"When all three of us were being programmed, I was given the most advanced coding. Since Throttle was programmed to be a neck-in-neck competitor, he got the second most advanced programming. Piston was programmed to be the challenger that's easy to pass, so he didn't get advanced coding, and he doesn't really think ahead because of that, and that's why he's prone to panic, and sort of acts like a kid. That's my guess."

Vanellope reflected on that for a second, then turned to Turbo.

"So, he was the worst at what he was programmed to do?"

Turbo looked down. "Worse. He was the worst, and he was programmed to beat me and Throttle, which he never did. One time in five years, it was an after-hours race, and it was against me. His only trophy."

Vanellope looked sad at that. "It's worse than being a glitch. At least you both were nice to him."

Turbo tensed. "Uhhh..."

"I said, at least you both were nice to him," Vanellope repeated a little more sternly.

"Onward!" Turbo chimed. "We can skip to the next day, because what happened that night after I got infected is irreverent, and embarrassing. Uh, so the next day, I was fine after the night's little sickness, and it was perfectly normal... For half of the day. _But at sometime around three, I heard the kids announce to the arcade..."_

* * *

_"New game!"_

"Cool!"

The two kids playing TurboTime stopped the current game, rushed over to the new console, and immediately began playing, which in turn made Turbo slam on the brakes and stare at the screen. His fingers tapped on the wheel and glitched ever so slightly. His eyes darted around crazily, and his feet started to twitch. He glitched more and more with each second, and the twins flanked him on either side; Throttle on the right, and Piston on the left.

"Turbo, you okay?" Throttle asked.

"You're glitching!" Piston remarked.

Turbo scowled and gritted his teeth.

"Throttle, if I was okay, would I be glitching?" He snapped his head over to Piston to offer a rebuttal to his remark.

"Piston, of course I'm glitching. Anyone with eyes can see that, idiot."

Piston dropped his head and turned away from Turbo, who was glitching more and more, and twitching so much that there wasn't a part of him that wasn't shaking. His feet glitched and slammed on the accelerator in one-second intervals, jerking the kart toward the exit. The twitching stopped in his feet, but his right foot remained on the accelerator firmly, careening the kart towards the exit. Turbo tried to move his foot off the accelerator, but it wasn't responding. It was like the virus was possessing him! His hands were still fine though, so he turned, so Turbo was just driving around in a circle, with Throttle staring at him, confused. Turbo's eyes widened when his hands started to glitch and twitch like his feet did. He gripped the steering wheel nervously as he felt the virus take over his hands. He struggled against the virus, but it didn't work. It was like a player was controlling him, but there was no end in sight. The kart stopped spinning around in a circle, and went careening towards the exit again. At this point, Turbo was pretty much internally freaking out as the virus drove the kart through the plug. Turbo knew what it wanted to do: it wanted to infect another game, and it would probably spring for one of the two games next to him... Or the one across from him, which was RoadBlasters.

Right now, Turbo wasn't sure which to be more freaked at: the fact that a virus was going to use his body to infect a game, or the fact that if it aimed for RoadBlasters, he wouldn't resist. His kart flew out of the plug, and stopped suddenly in the middle of the station, so abruptly that Turbo was thrown against the steering wheel. He barely had time to recover when the kart lurched forward again, the virus controlling his feet like it did when it first took over. The kart careened towards a plug, but Turbo was hunched over at the time, and didn't see which outlet it went in. He squinted, and saw the light at the end of the plug, and as he got closer, he could see some of the scenery, and he found out he was in RoadBlasters.

He was in another game. During the day. While it's being played.

Turbo started to freak again, and really pulled on where he was possessed to break free of the virus. He couldn't let it...

'No. What are you doing, Turbo? This is fun!' Turbo heard that voice in his head, and assumed it was the virus, so he thought up a response.

'No, it's not. I have to get out of here.'

'You can stay. Nothing will happen.'

'Hello! I'm in another game! During the day!'

'Oh, you're just so hard to please. You know that this game is newer than your game, right?'

'Right, but-'

'And you know that this game's popularity will get your game unplugged, right?'

'That's not necessarily true,' Turbo tried to get the virus to back off before he rocketed into the game, which would be in about five seconds.

'Wait...' Turbo thought, 'this IS fun. No more new game!'

_He felt the virus grow cold inside him as he changed his viewpoint on the situation._

* * *

_"Wait," Vanellope stopped him from going any farther at the moment,_ "you got infected by the virus because you couldn't remember that your game doesn't have powerups?!"

Turbo looked at her, half-smirking. He opened his mouth to continue, but Vanellope interrupted him.

"You can skip over the RoadBlasters part, cause we both know what happened there."

"Not entirely," Turbo corrected, "After I rammed into the player's car and glitched the game, the virus left my body, but only half of it, so half remained. I saw the orange 'out of order' sign on the screen, and on my game's screen, and I tried to pull myself out. I couldn't, but I was glitching, and I finally broke out of the glitched part, and I ran to the exit. I arrived in Game Central Station, but I didn't go back in my game."

"Why not?" Vanellope asked Turbo.

"Because I didn't want to face the twins. I was..." Turbo trailed off.

"Scared?" Vanellope finished for him.

"No! Come on, I wasn't scared. Do you have any idea who you're talking to?"

"A scardey-cat?"

"No! Anyways-"

"You were scared, weren't you?"

"ANYWAYS, you know in Game Central Station, there's an outlet on the wall?"

Vanellope thought for a second. There was a big outlet mounted on the wall of the Station, but no one ever ventured in it.

"Yeah," she answered, "I know it."

"Well, if you climb in it, there's a trapdoor mounted on the wall, and if you climb through it, you are inside the walls of the Station, and that's where I lived. I could hear conversations, and I didn't have to worry about food or anything. Video game characters can't die of starvation. Anyways, that meant I could hear Real World conversations, and one of the kids that was playing RoadBlasters when I crashed it was talking to his father."

"What was he saying?" Vanellope asked, awestruck. She figured if it want important, Turbo wouldn't have told her about it.

"They were talking about what I did. The son was jabbing to his dad. He was saying 'Dad, you won't believe what happened to the new game', and the father sounded bored, but he asked, 'What, what happened?"' Vanellope nodded her head and circled her hand in a 'go on' motion, and, for once, Turbo was happy to oblige.

_"The son said that 'Turbo, from that older game, was...'"_

* * *

_"...In the new game! _He was THERE! It was awesome! Well, the game crashed, so that stinks, but it's kinda cool how that happened, right Dad?"

The father of one of the most frequent arcade goers regarded his awestruck son with boredom at first, but he got a thoughtful look on his face after he started jabbering about Turbo's little game-jump. He grabbed his son's arm and dragged him over to the RoadBlasters console, ignoring his son's questions. He lifted the 'out of order' sign off the console, to find the game glitched up, and sure enough, Turbo's kart was there, but Turbo himself was nowhere to be found.

"He escaped," the father muttered under his breath. Mr. Litwak saw him inspecting the machine, and came over to him.

"Can I help you?" He asked the curious father.

"Yes," the father looked up at Mr. Litwak, "I noticed this game's acting up, and I have some experience in that field. Maybe I could help?"

"Oh," Mr. Litwak smiled at the seemingly nice man, "alright, if you can."

"Great!" The man shook Mr. Litwak's hand. "I'll be here tomorrow to look at it. Come on, son," he addressed his son with the last sentence and dragged him out of the arcade. Turbo had his ear pressed up against the wall to hear the conversation better, but it was what he didn't hear that was the important stuff.

* * *

**_Meanwhile..._**

"We don't have much time," the father hissed to his son. "I want you to check all the computers in the basement of our house for a 'package'." He made air quotes around 'package' with his free hand.

"Dad, I know you mean virus, and I know you hack, so stop trying to sugar-coat it!"

The father stopped dead in his tracks and slapped his hand over his son's mouth.

"At-tat-tat!" He said, "you don't say the 'H' word in public, alright?"

The son nodded, and his father let go of the kid's mouth. They soon reached their house, and the kid immediately rushed down into the basement.

* * *

The boy emerged from the basement two hours later.

"Well, that took long enough!" His father yelled. "I hope you found a virus down there!"

The son glared at him. "I found four. An Abraxus virus, a Koko virus, a Techno virus, and a Sub7 virus. They're here." He thrust a disk into his father's hands, who smiled at his son.

"Great. Now, all we have to do is implant these viruses into that console when I'm working on it tomorrow, and our little friend Turbo can do the rest."

* * *

_A/N: And that was chapter two! Unnamed father=no good. _

_Yes, Abarxus, Techno, Koko, and Sub7 are real computer viruses. No, I don't know what each of them do, cause its irrelevant to the story. I just went on Wikipedia and used the four virus names I liked best. (And yes, it's got to be four.)_

_Oh, by the way, I'll be on vacation for the next two weeks. Huzzah! _

_But, there's no wi-fi on a cruise boat, so that sadly means no updates on anything for two weeks. _

_Less huzzah._

_The review box is right there. Please leave some reviews so they shall grace my inbox when I get back and I shall be Happy Sour, and I might have a new update faster than usual. _

_See ya on the 30th._


	3. Shock Therapy

_A/N: I'm baaaaaaaack! Worked on this chapter over vacation, so two chapters I worked on during vacation. (First is for some other story) _

_Oh, why does that guy/father do all this?_

_One) He is a hacker and hackers do hacker things because they are hackers._

_Two) the plot._

_Oh, even though the last chapter left off in the past tense, this opens in the present tense._

* * *

Chapter three: Shock Therapy

"Ralph, why did Q*bert get unplugged?"

Immediately after Turbo finished telling her about the conversation between the Real World father and son, Vanellope rushed to Fix-it Felix JR to ask Ralph about how Q*bert was unplugged.

"A virus infected it," Ralph answered.

"Aha!" Vanellope yelled.

"What?"

"Turbo said the same thing!"

Ralph facepalmed. "It's obvious what he's doing. He's taking events that happened and building his story around them! Standard technique."

Vanellope leaned on the wall and tries to think of something. Ralph stared at her, and she seemed to get an idea. She pulled on Ralph's arm until he followed her, and she led him out into Game Central Station.

"Vanellope, where are you taking me?" Ralph asked Vanellope, who didn't answer, just continued tugging on Ralph's arm until they reached the wall where the big plug was. There were some stairs that led up to it, and Vanellope started to climb them, and beckoned for Ralph to follow. He uncertainly climbed the stairs after Vanellope, who was now a little after the threshold of the plug, searching the wall for something. When she didn't find it, she moved to the other wall and searched there. Vanellope felt something metal on her fingers, and she smiled and pulled it away from her, revealing that it's a secret door. Ralph was shifting his gaze from Vanellope the the door, then back to Vanellope, then the door.

"How did you know about this?" He asked her.

"Turbo told me."

"Right."

They both ventured through the door, which led to a passageway that seemed to loop around the Station. Vanellope turned back to Ralph with a smug expression on her face.

"See," she proclaimed, "this place exists! Turbo's not lying!"

"Turbo might have known about this place, but that doesn't make him innocent!" Ralph argued. All Vanellope did was glitch past Ralph and run back towards Sugar Rush.

* * *

Turbo was sitting in his cell, nervous out of his wits. He couldn't think of any way to prove he was telling the truth. No one except the twins knew he was infected by the virus, and even if he found them, no one would believe them! They'd just think that he told the twins to lie. Everything was questionable; he had no way out. Turbo would bury his face in his hands right about now, but the chains around his wrists were too short. He heard Vanellope run down the hall to his cell, but instead of her glitching through the door like usual, she opened the door just a sliver, to let another girl in with her. Turbo could make out pigtails, and he felt sick to his stomach.

"Turbo!" Vanellope yelled, "this is Citrucella, Jubileena's recolor, "she gestured to the girl next to her, "I wasn't sure if you can see her in the dark, but she wanted to see you."

Citrucella waved cheerfully, but Turbo's eyes widened and he tried to run away, rattling his chains as he did so.

"Get her out of here!" Turbo yelled. Vanellope turned her head back to Citrucella, then back to Turbo.

"I don't understand..."

"I'll tell you! I'll tell you everything!" Turbo was frantic now. "Just get her out of here!"

Vanellope ushered a confused Citrucella out of the fungeon and closed the door behind her. At once, she rushed to the hysterical Turbo, wondering why the recolor got him so riled up.

"Turbo, calm down," she said while tugging on his hand, "what was that?"

Turbo stopped rattling on his chains and caught his breath. He dreaded coming to this part in his retelling, but it had to be done.

"I'll tell you. It's the next part in the story. The day after I heard the father and son talking, he came back. I heard him. He first took a look at my game, and deemed it broken, infected by a virus. Then he took a look at RoadBlasters, and said that he had a disk that might fix it. He launched into this big explanation on virus magnitude, but anyways he somehow got the contents of that disk in the game. An hour passed, and he said that it didn't work. He just said to unplug them, and left. I_ just waved it off, until that night..."_

* * *

_Turbo had a long day._ He spent the whole day trying to find something to eat, although technically, video game characters couldn't die of starvation, or thirst. They could get hungry, though, and have hunger pains, which was happening to Turbo for the whole day. He made his way into the wall before the arcade closed, to find four beings waiting for him. All four were strings of binary that were woven together to look human; Turbo could even see indentations where their eyes and mouths were. The one in front was a dark blue and appeared to have a buzz cut, the one next to the first one was a dark yellow and had a Mohawk, the third, behind the first two, was a shade of dark pink, and the fourth was turquoise, and it was too far away for Turbo to see anything else. The blue one cleared its throat, and Turbo quickly turned his head towards it.

"We've been looking for you," it informed him.

Turbo was a little nervous, after all, how would you react if four strange what-are-these that you've never seen before just show up and announce they've been looking for you?

"I- you- what- do I know you?" Turbo managed.

Blue chuckled. "Where are my manners," it said, voice dripping with faux concern, "I'm Abraxas. This," he gestured to Yellow, "is Sub7. Back here," he jammed his thumb in Pink's direction, "is Techno, and that," he turned around a little and pointed to Turquoise, "is KoKo. You work for us now."

Turbo scoffed. "Yeah, right. I got two games unplugged, and you have the guts to just waltz in here and start bossing me around?" Turbo really didn't want to play that card, but maybe if he played tough, they'd leave. The four smiled amongst each other, but it wasn't a nice one. It was the 'You dead' type of smile. Abraxas spoke up again.

"You see, you crashed two games. We're here because of that. We're viruses. And, do you know what viruses can do?"

Turbo shook his head. Blue charges of energy flickered to life on the virus's hand, when he sucker-punched Turbo in the stomach, he got electrocuted. Turbo stumbled, trying to stay on his feet. He got over the pain and faced the viruses.

"O-okay. I'll do whatever you want. Leave it to me, I'll make sure you four men-"

"AHEM," KoKo yelled. Turbo took in the pitch and the virus's annoyance, turned beet red, and started stammering.

"O-oh, yo-yo-you-you're _female_, I-I couldn't tell from all the way here," as Turbo continued, KoKo stepped forward, and Turbo saw she had a high ponytail. Turbo secretly had plans for escape, but he just told himself to bear with it for now. Abraxas whispered something to the other three viruses, and they all placed one hand on Turbo's left shoulder. Abraxas gestured, and they all placed their other hand there, followed with him doing the same. Turbo's heart was crawling in his throat, as the blue virus turned towards him.

"Just in case you have plans to run away... Guys, full power." He directed the last part of the sentence to the other three viruses, and at once, Turbo was shocked with the full force of four viruses. Black dots swam across his vision, and he got a loud ringing in his ears as the unbearable pain coursed through him. He heard someone let out a bloodcurdling scream, then realized it was him. He could barley feel his limbs now as his legs buckled and gave out. He couldn't see or hear anything now. It was just pain. Nothing like anything he'd ever encountered before. Just when he thought he was a goner, the viruses abruptly stopped, leaving Turbo withering on the ground. They took a seat away from Turbo, who clutched his shoulder, and found that the viruses shocked him so hard that his shoulder was bleeding.

'_I hope they won't shock me for fun,' was Turbo's last thought before he blacked out._

* * *

_"Sweet mother of monkey milk..."_ Vanellope muttered, after hearing that part of the story.

"I still have a scar," Turbo told her, while moving one of his arms near her. "You can see for yourself if you want." Vanellope climbed up so she was balancing on Turbo's leg, and tried to stretch his collar to get a peek.

"It helps if you undo the button," Turbo offered. Vanellope did, and this time, she was able to get a good look at it. It was black in the middle, then faded to purple, then red at the edges, and Vanellope could see little blobs of yellow dotting it. Right now, the president couldn't care less about the story; she felt sorry for Turbo, however he got that scar. She roped her arms around his neck and pulled him, or at least half of him, close to her for a few seconds, and when she pulled away, found that Turbo had his mouth partway open in shock. Vanellope hopped down from Turbo's leg, and began to walk away from him, only stopping halfway to the door.

"I'll be back in a little while, alright?" She said. Turbo nodded his assent, and she glitched out of the fungeon.

"Turbo, you'd better be tellin' the truth," she muttered to herself, "you have no idea how hard I'm trying to convince Ralph it's not a lie."

She didn't have to worry about that.

* * *

_A/N: Finally, the viruses make an appearance! I hate them. I want to throw them in lava. But, I need them. Please review. It only takes a couple of seconds, and it makes me happy, and also makes the chapters come quicker._


	4. A Reluctant Takeover

_A/N: Oh my god. I'm actually updating this. To make up for the wait, here is an extra-large chapter for you._

* * *

Chapter four: A Reluctant Takeover

Vanellope ran back to the fungeon with some food. She wanted to at least let Turbo wander around in the cell, but Ralph was guarding the room with the key to his shackles in it, and Vanellope knew he'd never let her have it, and she couldn't say she needed something else. The key was the only thing in the room. She glitched through the door and ran to Turbo's side. He kept his eyes trained on her as she lifted up one of the smaller chocolate candies, taken from the landscape. It was still pretty big, though, almost as big as Vanellope herself.

"Here," she said softly, "for you."

Turbo took the candy from her and stared at it like it was going to disappear any second.

"Thanks," he said, "I like chocolate." He stroked it with one finger as Vanellope looked on.

"Come on," she goaded, "eat it. It's not gonna disappear or anything."

Turbo nodded slightly and inspected the candy, trying to find a spot he could eat from that wouldn't result in his face being smeared in chocolate. Vanellope turned away from him, and hunger soon overtook reason as he took a giant bite out of the side.

* * *

"Okay, I'm done."

Turbo set the half-finished candy down next to him, and Vanellope turned around.

"Okay," she announced, "where were we- gahahahahahaha!"

She cut off with uncontrollable laughter directed at a confused Turbo.

"What? What?"

"Ahahaha, hah, hehehe, you-aha, your face- gahahaha!"

Turbo was still confused, but what he didn't know was that the bottom half of his face was covered in chocolate, with a little on the tip of his nose.

"What are you... Ohhhhh," Turbo said as he realized why Vanellope was laughing. She controlled her laughter to take a good look at him. She instantly thought of another way to amp up the awkward.

"Can I have a lick?" She asked in a faux sweet voice. Turbo widened his eyes at her.

"No," he said sternly, "you most certainty may not have a lick."

"Pleeeease?"

"No."

"Aww come on, I was joking!" Vanellope pleaded when Turbo sternly turned away from her. She climbed on his leg and inched her face close to his. Turbo wiped off half of the chocolate and glared at Vanellope, who held up her hands in mock surrender. She jumped off Turbo's leg and got a smirk on her face. She quickly glitched back on Turbo's leg- his other leg and quickly licked some of the chocolate, just to tick him off.

"Hey!" Turbo yelled, unintentionally swatting Vanellope off his leg. She dusted herself off and narrowed her eyes at Turbo, who wiped off the rest of the chocolate.

"Where were you? I mean, with the story," Vanellope asked Turbo, who reluctantly faced her.

"Alright," he began, "The viruses... I was their slave for ten years. One of them always went into Game Central Station to find a suitable game for them to take over. One day, the girl came back with news. There was a suitable game: yours. _I thought they were done with me, but they said..."_

* * *

_"Get up. We're leaving."_

Abraxas was kicking Turbo's side repeatedly, waking him up. Turbo spent most of last night trying to find food, for the viruses, mind you, and he wasn't allowed to eat anything until the four viruses had their fill. All that was left were crumbs. He couldn't run away. They were viruses. They'd just find him again. He tried. Abraxas found him, and he was given that same super-shock treatment as the first day, and in the same spot too. When Abraxas kicked Turbo awake, he had just fallen asleep. Turbo tried to wake himself up, when Abraxas kicked him even harder.

"Get up, you sorry excuse for a program!" He yelled while kicking. Turbo scrambled up and faced the viruses, Abraxas's words sinking in.

"Leaving?" He asked, "Where?"

"To a game. One that you'll help us take over."

Turbo's blood ran cold with that statement. He was responsible for the ruin of two games, and he didn't want another one added to the list.

"Stop gawking at me and get a move on," Abraxas commanded. Turbo reluctantly trudged after the four, trying to concoct an escape plan.

* * *

Turbo got his first look of the game when the five of them popped out of the wall. Since viruses were infectious coding, they could travel through walls, but one of them had to drag Turbo along as well. Turbo, meanwhile, had no escape plan, and the only thing he noticed about the game was that it was made entirely out of candy before one of the viruses, he didn't see which, grabbed his hand and pulled him into the scenery.

* * *

They popped out in a castle, and three of the viruses immediately fanned out and began looking for something.

"Start looking," Abraxas commanded.

"For what?"

"Are you thick?! The code vault, idiot!" Abraxas yelled while shoving Turbo to the ground, coupled with a shock. Turbo picked himself up while the virus stormed away. He had learned to tolerate the mild shocks like the one he just received, so he didn't get dizzy, at least not for long. He walked towards a bright pink curtain behind the throne, figuring that he could tell the viruses that he searched a large place with no results. He saw a blue and white elevator behind it, and due to his knowledge of the code, knew he had found it. He ran away from it and tried to act natural, which in this case meant disappointed with a twinge of fear. Sub7 was the first virus to come back to the throne room, and immediately noticed something was up. Turbo was staring at the virus with disappointment and fear, and stared at his feet.

"I, um, I couldn't find it. I... Tried to find it, but no luck."

Unfortunately for Turbo, Sub7 was the virus skilled at detecting lies, so he saw through Turbo's ruse easily.

"Where is it?" The virus demanded. Turbo didn't answer, so Sub7 grabbed his collar and shook him violently, shocking him whenever his hands came in contact with Turbo's skin.

"Where is it?!" He demanded again. Turbo stayed silent, but he had shifty eyes, so he quickly glanced at the curtain and back. Sub7 caught that, and narrowed his eyes.

"Abraaaaaxaaaas!"

* * *

"Move, move, come on, get a load on!"

Abraxas goaded Turbo deeper into the codes, with the other three viruses trailing behind. Because of their virus status, they could go into the code room without tethering to anything. They could also drag anyone they want into the code room without a tether also, which just so happened to be the unfortunate Turbo, in this case. They steered him to where all the racers' codes were clumped in a cluster.

"Start working," Abraxas commanded.

"On what?" Turbo asked quietly.

"Hmm, lemme think. We came here to take over this game, right? So, don't you think that we *might* need disguises? So, start working!"

Turbo floated there, staring at the code boxes. He still wasn't sure of exactly what he was supposed to do, so he tentatively turned around to face the viruses, his heart crawling into his throat. Abraxas slapped his forehead out of annoyance.

"Must I spell everything out for you? Make duplicates of the code boxes of four racers, and change their theme color. It's not! That! Difficult!"

"But, which ones should I make copies of?"

"I don't know, any one!" Abraxas yelled while shoving a few code boxes at random to Turbo, "these!"

Turbo tapped one of the code boxes, belonging to a red-headed girl with pigtails, and started working on it. It wasn't hard to make a duplicate code, which he did in just a minute, but he faced another problem.

"What should I name the duplicate? And, what color should I make her?"

Abraxas was getting annoyed at Turbo, but even he wasn't rash enough to shock Turbo in the code vault.

"I don't know, make her blue!" He yelled, intending for this to be his disguise.

"And her name?" Turbo asked.

"Citrus Pucker!" Techno yelled, earning strange glances from Turbo and the other viruses.

"You know, citrus fruit, and lemons are citrus, and they make you pucker..." Techno tried to explain himself. Suddenly, he got a strange light in his eyes.

"Citrucella! Cause she's a girl!" He yelled. Abraxas waved his hand.

"Fine, whatever," he said, "Citrucella it is."

Turbo typed in the name 'Citrucella Pucker', but KoKo yelled out another idea.

"Flugpucker! I don't think anyone in their right mind would name someone Pucker."

"What's a flug?" Turbo asked.

"I have no idea."

"Never mind what a flug is, just put the name in," Abraxas commanded. Turbo did so, and changed the theme color from red to blue. Once that was finished, he wasn't sure how to put the disguise on the virus.

"Move. Let me do it," the virus in question commanded while shoving Turbo aside. Turbo watched as Abraxas disappeared into the code box like he did the scenery earlier. Probably another virus thing. After a few seconds, he reappeared, now looking like the disguise.

"Looking good, sir!" Techno yelled while giving a goofy thumbs-up to Abraxas. He scowled at Techno, and Turbo had to try hard not to laugh. Abraxas reached over and pulled Techno closer to the code boxes.

"You're up. You, stop smirking," he said, with the second statement directed at Turbo, who pulled out another code box, this one belonging to another girl with a snow hat. Before he could do anything, he felt someone turn him around roughly, and came face-to-face with Abraxas, now in his new disguise. The one thing that kept Turbo from just laughing in his face and leaving the code room was the fact that the girl in front of him was a dangerous virus.

"Change my voice," he commanded.

'_Geez,'_ Turbo thought, _'it's not that hard to talk without yelling or commanding people around. Try it someday!'_

But in actuality, he knew better than to say that, because they would come out of the code room eventually, and he didn't feel like receiving a super-shock. He fished out Citrucella's code box and tapped it to get to the voice pitch widget. It was simple, just drag a little knob up and down. The higher the knob, the higher the pitch. Turbo just adjusted it a little higher so it could pass as a girl's voice, which was easy since Abraxas was yelling at him the whole time about irrelevant things, so Turbo didn't have to continuously tell him to talk.

'_Must not make him mute. Must not make him mute,'_ Turbo repeated in his head while he worked on Abraxas's voice.

* * *

The coding process dragged on for hours, mainly due to Turbo making his King Candy disguise as extravagant as possible before the now-disguised viruses dragged him away from the box. Midway through his disguise, he noticed that each racer had an icon for the jumbotron, which the viruses' disguises didn't posses. In order to escape the viruses' potential wrath, he just pulled out the four recolor disguise codes and duplicated an icon from a random code box, but by sheer luck one of the disguises matched up with the correct icon. He configured the scenery around the racetrack, to fit with his new disguise, simply dubbed 'King Candy', as that was all Turbo could think of without the viruses helping with the naming. As he was changing the initials on what appeared to be a popcorn box, he couldn't help but wonder who VvS was.

He'd find out soon enough.

* * *

"This had better work," Abraxas, now dubbed Citrucella, warned Turbo once they were out of the code room, while the other three viruses inspected their new flesh. Turbo vigorously nodded and smiled nervously.

"It _will_ work, trust me," he reassured, "now, go out! Look around! Explore! You'll be living in this game from now on, so you'd better know your way around!"

The viruses exchanged glances, before heading towards the door. Turbo watched them leave, then released a large breath he was unaware that he was holding. He was certain the viruses would come back sometime, but at least he could live the lavish life of a king before that happened. Turbo was just glad it was easy to tell which virus was which. To save time, their recolored disguises were the same color of their original pixels. It was important to tell the viruses apart because they all had different properties, different detecting skills, different corruptive-ness, the works, so if Turbo ever concocted an escape plan, he had to know which virus was which, since one was skilled in detecting lies, while another wasn't, naturally he wouldn't want to lie to the one who could detect them.

"Who are you?"

Turbo spun around to see a little green sourball gaping at him, and he figured since this game was plugged in that same day, he could lie about his identity and the sourball would be none the wiser.

"I'm King Candy," Turbo answered, trying to sound confident.

"Mmmmhmm," the sourball droned.

"Why didn't I see you a few hours ago with the princess?" The candy questioned.

"Princess?" Turbo repeated.

'A princess?' Turbo thought, 'there's a _princess?!_ There's no way this'll work out! The viruses! They'll, well, I'm not sure what they'll do, but they might do the same thing they did to me. She's just a kid! Well, I think, but really, I'm pretty sure! I can't let them do that to her, even if I don't know her!'

"Do you have any rope?" Turbo asked the sourball.

* * *

Turbo had just finished programming another outfit for the soon-to-be-ex-princess, when he thought of something else: memories. What would happen when the other racers found the princess somewhere in the game? He floated over to two boxes, one reading "racers' memory", and the other reading "citizens' memory". He took a box used for unlockables and locked away the boxes. Then, he floated back to the princess's code. Before he started pulling wires, which he knew would only make her a glitch, not delete her, he figured he should know her name. Vanellope Von Schweetz. Turbo sucked in a breath, and started yanking the wires on her code box. He quickly pushed the box to the side, letting it float to the edge. He gave the licorice rope two tugs, and the sourball pulled him back. He chuckled at the sight of the wide-eyed candy, and patted his head.

"Shhhhh..."

* * *

Turbo, with a little help from the sourball, whose name turned out to be Sour Bill, managed to find 'his' royal chambers, which was located at the top of the highest tower in the castle. When he opened the door to the room, his eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets.

The chamber was large, of course, and pink- salmon. It was salmon. There was a large window overlooking Sugar Rush, and across from ti, there was a king-sized bed, no pun intended, with an intricately-crafted headboard, made out of hard candy. There were many decorative pillows adorning the bed, pink with trims of white, that seemed to be made out of marshmallows. The blankets were also pink, and it had a white bedskirt. Framing the aforementioned window were some dark pink drapes that sent a shiver up Turbo's spine, because they reminded him of Techno, the virus with an unfortunate color scheme.

Anyways.

The drapes were also accented by some candy ribbon, with another set made purely of loosely-woven cotton candy. Turbo walked up to the bed and felt the blankets, which appeared to be made out of more tightly-woven cotton candy, and the bed itself was made out of marshmallows, and a graham cracker foundation, as Turbo found out after he peeked under the bedskirt. There were also many shelves, as intricately crafted as the beds' headboard. Turbo guessed that the shelves were for trophies, and if they were, they would fill up soon.

"Sir?"

Turbo turned around to face Sour Bill, who was still situated at the threshold of the door.

"Need anything?" The sourball droned. Turbo laid a hand over his stomach, now feeling the hunger he was previously distracted from.

"Yes," he answered, "bring me some food before I devour this whole game."

Sour Bill ran off, giving Turbo some privacy. Turbo let his eyes stray towards the side of the room, and found there was a large mirror mounted on the wall. He walked towards it slowly, flexing his hand as he did so. He stared at his reflection in awe. Was that really... Him?

No, it wasn't.

This wasn't him.

This wasn't his skin.

This wasn't his chamber.

This wasn't his castle.

This wasn't his game.

To Turbo, this all felt so... So... _Artificial_. He stole all this from someone, and made her a glitch. Though, in retrospect, it would've been better than the viruses finding her, and either killing her or making her wish it was so.

"Your food, sir."

'That was fast," Turbo thought as he looked at the massive cart stockpiled with food that Sour Bill was rolling in, and had to resist diving into the stuff and eating, well, not like a king.

"You are dismissed," Turbo said in a tiny voice, and Sour Bill scurried off. Once Turbo was sure he was out of earshot, he gathered as much food (all candy, mind you) as he could and stuffed it all in his mouth. He could barely move his jaw after that, but he tried his best, swallowing most of the food near-whole.

_After his eating frenzy was over, he collapsed on the bed and was out like a light._

* * *

_"You don't eat much, do you?"_ Vanellope questioned in the present, after Turbo reached for the chocolate candy from earlier.

"Not really," Turbo answered, taking a bite out of the candy.

"Wait... You said... That the recolors are _viruses?!"_

"Yeah." Turbo said it like it was no big deal.

"Oh my... I brought a virus in the castle! There are viruses in the game!"

"Actually, no, there aren't," Turbo interrupted.

"How? You said-"

"I know what I said."

"Then how are the recolors viruses, but there aren't any viruses in the game?"

"Two words: hard reset."


End file.
